Part 5: Requests for costings and processing

Requests for costings — procedures and standards

Further to Part 1, requests for costings can be made during the Caretaker Period prior to a general election. They must be made by the Prime Minister, or the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of a minority party through the Prime Minister. The Secretaries are not obliged to take any action on requests unless they are received through the Prime Minister.

The provision of full information to the Secretaries at the outset will help to minimise unnecessary delays. Requests for costings are to: be in writing; fully outline the policy to be costed, giving relevant details, including any underlying assumptions; and state the purpose or intention of the policy. Appendix C contains a pro-forma indicating the information normally required for a costing to be prepared.

A request should fully outline the design features of the policy. It will assist in the preparation of costings if detailed information is provided on the assumptions that parties may have used in making their own assessments regarding the cost of policies. However, it should be noted that all assumptions used in the costing will be those of the Secretaries. Where there is an inconsistency between the stated intention of the policy and its design features, the policy will be costed on the basis of its design features.

Departmental expenses will be included in costings where analysis of the policy shows that these are material. In undertaking the costing of departmental expenses, existing programs/policies of a similar nature will be used as a guide.

Respective responsibilities of the department of the treasury and the department of finance and deregulation

Under the Charter, the Secretary to the Treasury is responsible for costing aspects of policies affecting taxation revenue and taxation expenditure, while the Secretary of the Department of Finance and Deregulation is responsible for costing aspects of policies that affect government outlays and expenses, and non-taxation revenue.

Policies that have implications for both taxation revenue and expenses will be jointly costed by the Secretaries. Costing requests received will be divided between the Secretaries on a case-by-case basis. In some cases, it may not be clear if a policy will affect only revenue or expenses. It is therefore suggested that, to facilitate timely and accurate costings, costing requests should be forwarded to both Secretaries simultaneously. In such cases, the Secretaries will ensure close consultation between their Departments in administering the costing process in order to minimise delays.

It is also expected that the Departments will liaise closely with the PBO to ensure that similar policies are not costed by both organisations.

Upon receiving a request from — or through — the Prime Minister, the relevant Secretary (or Secretaries jointly) will issue a press release to inform the public they have been asked to cost a policy. The press release will broadly outline the policy to be costed.

Timelines for submitting costing requests

Costing requests should desirably be submitted to the relevant Secretary during business hours, preferably by 5.30 pm on a weekday. Business hours for the purpose of these guidelines are the weekday hours from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. Requests received by Secretaries outside of these hours will be taken as having been received the next business day, unless otherwise specifically agreed in advance with the relevant Secretaries. These timing conventions will apply to both the public release of information regarding the request, as well as the commencement of work on the costing.

Election costing requests should be received by the responsible Secretaries no later than 5.30 pm on the sixth business day prior to polling day for the election (that is, Thursday in the penultimate week before the election), to enable the public release of the policy costings by 5.30 pm on the Thursday before polling day for the election. This will allow time for costings to be publicly scrutinised before polling day. Should requests be received later than the specified time, the Secretaries will endeavour to cost the policy and release the costing. However, it may not be possible to complete the costing in time for release on the Thursday before polling day for the election. The Secretaries will send a letter and issue a press release early in the campaign reminding both parties of the submission deadline.

Timelines for the provision of costings

As noted in Part 4, the Secretaries will endeavour to complete and release a costing within five business days of receiving a request. However, this may not be possible in the case of complex costing requests where data is difficult to obtain, or where more detailed information needs to be provided by the party. In such cases, a public statement to that effect will be made by the relevant Secretary at the outset, or when it becomes clear that the costing cannot be completed within the time frame. Where additional information is required, the five days will exclude the time taken to obtain the additional information.

Further information required for the completion of costings

If the Secretaries consider that further information is required, they may request information from the Prime Minister, or from the Leader of the Opposition, or the Leader of the relevant minority party, as appropriate, in writing. Secretaries will endeavour to ask for such additional information within two business days of receiving the costing request. Further discussion between Treasury and/or Finance officials and advisers in the offices of the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of the relevant minority party may be necessary as part of that process. Additional information provided in such discussions should be followed up in writing and forwarded to the Secretaries.

Officials may seek clarification of points relating to the costing request from the requesting party. Such requests may be by email or telephone. The officer seeking additional information will make a note of the information sought and responses received, and seek confirmation from the costing party of the accuracy of the note. Such requests for clarification will be noted in the final costings advice where the information materially affects the costing outcome.

Withdrawal of a costing request

As noted in Part 1, the withdrawal of a request for a costing may be made at any time. A withdrawal by the Prime Minister must be in writing to the Secretaries and a withdrawal by the Leader of the Opposition or a Leader of a minority party must be in writing to the Prime Minister, permitting the Prime Minister to notify the Secretaries of the withdrawal in writing.

Security arrangements

Security arrangements will be similar to those applied at Budget time and the confidentiality of the costings will be protected until they are publicly released.

Next: Part 6: Reporting — public release of policy costings
Previous: Part 4: Costing protocols and methods
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